Another Life
by modernxxmyth
Summary: The bomb worked, and no one remembered to regret it. Sawyer and Kate meet one afternoon at a gas station and don't remember each other. Not really. Skate. Post-season five, Sawyer/Kate one-shot.


**A/N:** Set post-season five. Sawyer/Kate. One-shot.

**Disclaimer: **Oh, trust me, if I owned Lost, there would have been a lot more Skate the past two seasons.

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_**Another Life**_

The bomb worked.

Jack's so-called brilliant plan didn't backfire – it was completely successful. It did everything it was supposed to do. They were back on the plane, headed to LAX, memories clear of anything out of the ordinary.

The bomb worked, and no one remembered to regret it. There was nothing to regret when nothing had happened.

Their realities changed. Jack was still a doctor, clean of addiction. Sawyer was still a con artist, being deported back to America. Kate was still a murderer, sitting miserably in handcuffs.

Nothing changed. Everything changed. No one remembered to regret it.

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Kate met Sawyer one afternoon at a gas station.

The setting was familiar.

Kate was running a con – not a difficult one. It was simple. She was selling some sketchy watches for hundreds of dollars, even though they would likely break within two weeks. It didn't matter. A convict on the run has to get money where she can, and Kate was not about to whore herself out.

The guy she was selling to was starting to ask questions. It was a sketchy situation, after all. Who would sell high-quality watches at a gas station, rather than at a store or online? But Kate did what any pretty brunette running from the law would do. She flirted and made sale after sale.

This particular guy was giving her problems, however. Question after question – why was she selling here, how much were they in stores, is that real gold?

Another man who had been filling up his tank quirked an eyebrow and smirked.

He looked familiar somehow.

The man had relatively long gold hair, a scruffy face, and an edgy disposition.

He approached Kate and her customer, feigning interest in the watches, commenting on the pristine quality. Kate was grateful – the customer purchased three out of the five watches.

The customer left after the sale was made, but the stranger stuck around.

Kate narrowed her eyes.

The man grinned, "Do I know you from somewhere?"

Kate rolled her eyes, though he did look startlingly familiar. "Is that a bad pick-up line?"

"Only if you want it to be, Sweetcheecks."

"Oh," Kate began, "Well, now I feel honored. Thanks for before, by the way."

"Anything for a fellow con," Sawyer smiled. "Do you usual work this area?"

Kate shook her head. "I travel a lot. I don't really have much of an area."

"You traveling tonight?" he asked.

Kate shook her head.

"You want to grab a drink?"

Kate knew it was probably a bad idea. She had no idea who he was. He was a criminal, for certain. But there was something familiar about him that was driving her just a little mad. "Sure."

There was a bar just across the street, and the pair walked there together.

The man spoke up, "So what's your name, Freckles?"

"I have a lot of names." She paused. "You can call me Kate."

She wasn't sure why she trusted him with her real name – it was uncommon for her to use on the run. Maybe it was because he was a fellow criminal. She wasn't quite sure. All she knew was that she felt comfortable to do so. Kate felt, in a lot of ways, like she'd met him before. Like she already knew him. She didn't know how, and she shrugged it off. But she felt like she could trust him.

"Kate," he muttered under his breath. "You can call me Sawyer."

Even the name sounded familiar.

She had the sudden image of the pair of them drinking around a campfire.

Kate blinked.

Maybe she was hallucinating. She'd never met the man before, and she'd certainly never drank with him around a campfire.

They got to the bar, a dingy little thing with dust, dark rooms, and quiet music. They ordered their drinks and talked about nothing.

"You look so familiar," Kate revealed. "I have no idea why."

"So do you, Sassafras. Maybe we've met before."

"I think I'd remember," Kate suggested, "but you do seem familiar."

Sawyer nodded his agreement. "You con often?"

"No," Kate replied. "Just occasionally. When I'm desperate for cash. I assume you do."

It was more of a statement than an inquiry.

Sawyer replied, "It's an occupation in its own right. What do you do with the rest of your time? You mentioned you travel a lot."

Kate smiled tightly. "A little of this, a little of that. I'm not one to stay in one place for too long."

"That's too bad," Sawyer decided, "because I was hoping you would stay at my hotel tonight."

She smirked. "I may be able to make an exception."

"Aren't I a lucky man?" Sawyer grinned, dimples prominent.

There was something about the dimples, Kate decided, that seemed recognizable, too.

"Yes," Kate decided. "You are."

They finished their drinks, and then had seconds. Kate followed him to his hotel room a few hours later, and he was all hands.

Sawyer's touch felt familiar. His calloused hands, his tight grip, his bruising kisses. It all felt so familiar and good. His body was warm and slick against hers as they moved bare skin against bare skin on the bed. His chiseled body gave her a sense of comfort, and it felt incredibly _right_ when he fisted his hands in her long curls.

She felt an unrecognizable connection to him at the moment that she couldn't explain. But there was something there. Some sort of history or some sort of future that she didn't know about or couldn't remember.

He tasted like whiskey, and their tongues met, moving and writhing like their bodies.

They finished even better than they started, bodies pulsing against one another, and their breathing heavy and hot.

Kate wasn't one to stay the night after a one night stand, but decided to live up to her word and make an exception. The pair fell asleep an hour later, after a second steamy round. They curled up, naked and sweaty, and fell asleep.

Then the dreams occurred.

Kate dreamt of being locked in cages and rough metal bars pressed against her back. She dreamt of passionate embraces with Sawyer up against those same metal bars. She dreamt of drinking games in jungles and chasing wild boar. She dreamt of midnight sex with Sawyer in a blue tarp covered tent. She dreamt of a plane crash – the one she'd been on with the Marshall before she'd escaped at a run from the airport. She dreamt of an island where all this could happen. Where somehow it _did_ happen. Some island she'd never seen. But she'd been there, in this dream.

The dreams felt like memories, almost, finally seeping into her consciousness after being repressed. Those things happened, didn't they? Kate tried to remember back to high school psychology class. But she'd never been the most ambitious of students, and it was a long time ago.

The pair woke up at this same time, six hours later, and Kate turned to Sawyer curiously.

"I had a strange dream about you last night. We were on an island."

Sawyer blinked slowly. "I had the same dream."

Kate bit her lip. "Do you think somehow it was real?"

"Maybe," Sawyer said gruffly. "Maybe in another life."

fin

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Review! :) I like to know I have readers. Who is ready for the new season?!


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